BATON ROUGE — LSU quarterback Joe Burrow had just taken a big swig of water as the question was asked following the Tigers' 45-38 win at No. 9 Texas Saturday night.

"Joe, with a six-point lead late and on the road (37-31 with 3:59 left), to go in the shotgun and throw it on first down, that aggressive mentality," WAFB Channel 9 sports anchor Jacques Doucet began. But Burrow cut him off after he swallowed.

On first down from the LSU 25 in the above situation, Burrow threw over the middle to wide receiver Terrace Marshall Jr. for 11 yards.

"Yeah, it's definitely different than what we did last year," Burrow said. "I think we would've tried to kind of pound the run game, you know, eat up the clock."

Previous LSU head coaches and offensive coordinators would have done so, too, and may have won the game. Or maybe not.

"You saw it last year against Texas A&M," Burrow said. "We didn't get the job done on offense, and they ended up scoring (after LSU's defense did not get the job done)."

In an almost identical situation to Saturday, LSU lost in its last trip to the state of Texas. Last Nov. 24, the Tigers led the Aggies, 31-24, at Texas A&M with 4:09 to play and had the ball at its 34-yard line. Three runs netted five yards, and the Tigers punted. Texas A&M took over with 1:29 to go and drove 78 yards in 12 plays to the game-tying touchdown in the final moments against Dave Aranda's defense to force overtime, which it won in round seven, 74-72.

"So, we wanted to go into that drive being aggressive, and it paid off," Burrow said.

On the next play, Burrow threw over the middle to wide receiver Justin Jefferson for seven yards. Then tailback Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed for three and the first down. Burrow threw incomplete to Jefferson, then was sacked for minus-7 yards with 2:38 to play.

Maybe this would not work. It was third and 17 from the LSU 39 with 2:38 to play. Maybe LSU should have run more to run more clock. Texas was about to get the ball back with plenty of time to do what it had done three times since the third quarter opened — drive for a touchdown.

"They were playing cover zero," Burrow said of a blitz defense with shallow coverage and man-to-man on the receivers, "so I knew I was going to have to take a shot."

Edwards-Helaire expertly picked up blitzing outside linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch up the middle just enough. As Burrow stepped up in a crowded pocket and moved just to his left away from McCulloch, he coolly watched for Jefferson to make his cut.

"I was waiting for his stick on his left foot before I made the ball leave my hand," said Burrow, who threw it off balance to his left just as as blitzing safety Chris Brown and nose tackle Keondre Coburn got close. "And he just made a play for me. I got it out in front of him, and the rest is history."

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Joe Burrow and LSU had no plans to kill clock late at Texas
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Burrow also got good blocks early in the play from left guard Adrian Magee, center Lloyd Cushenberry, and right tackle Austin Deculus, who kept blitzing safety Brandon Jones out of the play.

Jefferson caught the crossing route in stride at the Texas 43-yard line, turned up the LSU sideline at the 40, stiff armed safety Caden Sterns at the 36, and sprinted untouched the rest of the way for the touchdown.

"I'd been telling Joe, the safeties can't really guard me," said Jefferson, who finished with nine catches for 163 yards and three touchdowns. "So he saw I was open. I stiff-armed the guy and went in the end zone."

That made it LSU 43, Texas 31 with 2:27 to go. Time to relax and kick the extra point?

"That third-and-17 play — Clyde made a great block on a blitzing linebacker," Orgeron said Monday at his press conference. "Joe squeezed up in there, threw off of one foot. Justin made tremendous yards after the catch. What a great play! I'm always going to remember that play. What an outstanding play for the Tigers. We needed it."

Edwards-Helaire already has the play at the top of his memory list, particularly Burrow's part of it.

"I mean, a throw that I'll remember for the rest of my life," he said. "Joe was getting hit and threw a ball off one leg, side arm to Justin. That's something I'll take to my grave. A guy with arm talent like that and being so composed is something that's hard to find. And we have it."

Orgeron's strategy was to beat the clock, not by killing time with legs, but by scoring more with that arm.

"At that point in the game, we needed the offense to score one more touchdown, and we did," Orgeron said. "Disappointed the way the defense played in the second half and letting them score the way we did. And we're going to get it fixed."

For a change, LSU's defense needs the fixing, not the offense, as the No. 4 Tigers (2-0) host Northwestern State (0-2) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Tiger Stadium on the SEC Network.

"And that is the difference in LSU," analyst Kirk Herbstreit said on ABC after describing Jefferson's touchdown catch on third and 17. "This is 2019 LSU. This is Joe Burrow."

Jefferson laughed when Doucet said LSU would have "run three times and punted" in the past.

"Right. Right," said Jefferson, a younger brother of former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson, who was in a very conservative offense from 2008-11. "It's crazy to see that this offense has turned around in one year."

And he and Burrow and company say there is much more to come.

"To be honest, this new offense, it's just going to be crazy for us. I mean, we're ready for any team," Jefferson said.

And Burrow is No. 1 in the SEC and No. 2 nationally in passing efficiency at 219.1 on 54-of-66 passing (.818 percent) for nine touchdowns and one interception. LSU has not had a quarterback finish ranked in the top five in passing efficiency in the nation since Zach Mettenberger in 2013.

"Well, it's a long season," Burrow said when asked if his summer boast has turned true so far. "But you can take a look at the last two scoreboards and figure that one out. I'm fired up about it."